Market Strategies, Inc. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Market Strategies? How do I find out more about the company?
Market Strategies, Inc. (MSI) is a full-service, custom and syndicated research and strategic consulting firm with extensive experience across select service areas. For more information, visit our website at http://www.marketstrategies.com

I am on the National Do Not Call Registry list. Why are you calling me about survey participation?
MSI is a research company. As such, and since we do not sell anything, we are exempt from the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and the Telemarketing Sales Rule that governs the National Do Not Call Registry. The law recognizes the value of research and allows legitimate research companies to call people that are registered on the National Do Not Call Registry. Our surveys however, are voluntary and we respect your right not to participate. For more information, please visit the Federal Trade Commissions web page entitled Q&A: The National Do Not Call Registry for answers to commonly asked questions about the National Do Not Call Registry. Question #31 on that page directly pertains to telephone surveys. Please also refer to Market Strategies, Inc. Privacy Policy.

How can I be removed from your email or phone contact lists?
All of our surveys are voluntary and we respect respondents’ rights not to participate. Market Strategies does not maintain or provide the list of respondents who are selected to be surveyed. If you wish to have your phone number or email address excluded from surveys that we conduct, please complete our Do Not Contact form. Be sure to supply us with the necessary information (email, phone number, etc.) and we will honor your request. Please allow 3 business days for your request to be fully processed and your contact information to be excluded from future surveys.

Can I change my mailing address or be removed from your postal mailing lists?
Market Strategies does not maintain the list of respondents who are invited by postal mail to take our surveys. Instead, we are provided with our survey sample from either the client who commissioned the study or we acquire it from vendors that maintain survey panels. As a result, we are unable to process any form of address changes or removals for our postal mail survey invites. We apologize for this inconvenience.

Can I change the method of how Market Strategies contacts me for surveys?
Market Strategies does not dictate the method (i.e.: postal mail, email, phone) that a client chooses to contact respondents for a survey and we are unable to change the method as to how respondents receive their survey invitations.

All Surveys - General Questions

Who will see my survey answers and how will they be used?
Any information you provide is for research purposes only, with results viewed only in aggregate. We will never associate personally identifiable information with your survey responses unless you give us explicit permission to do so. Click here to view the Market Strategies, Inc. Privacy Policy.

Why do you ask personal information in your surveys?
We ask questions about your demographics, interests, employment, income, and online usage. We use this information to classify your survey results with those of other, similar respondents for analysis purposes and to ensure that our sample of respondents is representative of the entire population.

How do I know if a survey is offering an incentive, honorarium or sweepstakes?
The invitation to a survey will mention if any incentive, honorarium or sweepstakes is available for participation in that survey.

How can I sign up for surveys from you? Do you have market research panels?
Market Strategies does not maintain panels or survey mailing/contact lists - we acquire our sample from our clients or from vendors that maintain survey panels.

I recently participated in a survey, and I have not yet received my honorarium. Can you help?
In general, honorarium payments are processed 15-20 days from the close of the entire study. Some studies can run from a few days to over a month or more, depending upon how quickly the required number of completes are received. If it has been several weeks since you completed a survey and you have not received your honorarium, please visit our Contact Support page and complete the requested information so that we can perform a trace on your check.

Web/Online Surveys - General Questions

How long do surveys take to complete?
It depends on the survey. They can take anywhere from five to 45 minutes to complete depending upon the number and kinds of questions asked as well as the speed of your internet connection or browser.

How do I get to the survey?
There are three methods for getting to the survey site:

A. Clicking the Survey URL (web address) link from an email invitation
1. Take special note of your unique Survey ID.
2. Click on the link to enter the survey website.
3. In the ID field of the login box, type your Survey ID.
4. Click the ENTER button on the screen to proceed.
5. Complete the survey by following the directions on the screen.

B. Typing in the Survey URL (web address)
1. Run the browser of your choice (Internet Explorer, Netscape, Firefox, etc.). All browsers have a space near the top of the screen, generally under your toolbars and above the viewing area, where URL's are typed or pasted in.

In Internet Explorer, this line is called "Address". (Click here to see an IE browser screenshot)
In Netscape, this line is called "Location" or may be unlabeled. (Click here to see a Netscape browser screenshot)
In Firefox, this line is found directly to the right of the "Home” button (usually a miniature icon of a house). (Click here to see a Firefox browser screenshot)
In Opera, this line is found directly to the left of the GO button. (Click here to see an Opera browser screenshot)
In Mozilla, this line is found directly to the right of the "Stop (X) button". (Click here to see a Mozilla browser screenshot)
In AOL, this is the line that reads "Type Keywords or Addresses here" or may be unlabeled. (Click here to see an AOL browser screenshot)
In Safari (MAC OS X), this line is to the right of the "Refresh (curly arrow)" icon. (Click here to see a Safari browser screenshot)

2. Type the entire URL from the survey invitation into that browser's address line or space, exactly as presented.
3. Once you have typed the entire URL in the space, hit the "Enter" key and you will be taken to the survey.
4. In the ID field of the login box, type your unique Survey ID as provided in the invitation.
5. Click the ENTER button on the screen to proceed.
6. Complete the survey by following the directions on the screen.

C. "Copy and paste"-ing the Survey URL (web address) from an email invitation
1. While keeping the email open, run the browser of your choice (Internet Explorer, Netscape, Firefox, etc.). All browsers have a space near the top of the screen, generally under your toolbars and above the viewing area, where URL's are typed or pasted in. (See preceding FAQ entry above for browser descriptions and screenshots).
2. Once you have found the described space, "copy and paste" the URL from the email to this space. (How do I copy and paste?)
3. After the URL is pasted into that space, hit the "Enter" key and you will be taken to the survey.
4. In the ID field of the login box, type your unique Survey ID as provided in the invitation.
5. Click the ENTER button on the screen to proceed.
6. Complete the survey by following the directions on the screen.

Which browser works best for your surveys?
We recommend using the latest version of Internet Explorer or Netscape to view our surveys. We encourage AOL users to use one of those two browsers when participating in Market Strategies’ surveys. These browsers connect directly to our surveys, thereby producing a faster connection and a better overall experience. Respondents may also use recent versions of Firefox, Opera, Mozilla, AOL or Safari browsers to access, but may experience compatibility issues with some of our surveys.

When I access or resume the survey, I am getting a message that states that the survey is closed. What does this mean?
Our surveys are programmed to automatically close once they reach the required number of completes for the study. Depending on the volume of interest in a survey, surveys can fill up within hours or may remain open for many months. In addition, most surveys accept a maximum number of completes. If you have received a "project or survey closed" message, we have received the required number of completed surveys or the survey period has ended. Once a survey has closed, it is no longer available to access or participate in. We appreciate everyone’s willingness to complete the survey and hope that if you find a survey has already closed that you will consider participating in future surveys.

While taking the survey, I was told that I did not qualify for the survey. What does this mean?
If you do not qualify for a particular survey, it simply means the survey's requirements do not match the answers you have given or that we already have enough participants for that. We appreciate everyone’s willingness to complete the survey and hope that if you do not qualify for this particular survey, you will consider participating in future surveys.

While starting or taking the survey, I was told that the "quota was filled" on a survey. What does this mean?
A "quota filled" message means that we have already received enough participants in your group for this particular survey. Surveys are designed to close automatically or display the "quota filled" message once the required number of completed surveys has been reached. We appreciate your willingness to participate and hope that if the survey's quota is full, you will consider participating in future surveys.

Web/Online Surveys - Technical Questions

What is my survey ID number?
Your survey ID number is provided in your survey invitation instructions. This number is a unique number assigned only to you for the duration of the survey. We do not use email addresses, account numbers, PINs, telephone numbers, or Social Security Numbers as survey IDs.

I am a WebTV user and I am having trouble accessing/completing the survey. What do I do?
While it is possible that WebTV users can connect to our surveys, the limitations of the TV browser (especially with its lack of Javascript support) may often prevent respondents from accessing or completing our web surveys successfully. We recommend that WebTV not be used to access our surveys and we are unable to provide full support to WebTV users. Our surveys should be accessed via a regular computer and web browser connection.

I have clicked buttons or checked boxes in the survey, but nothing is happening. What do I do?
Be sure you are clicking on the "Next Screen" button at the bottom of the page for the survey to continue. Sometimes the question and answer options are long, and you will need to scroll your window down to see the "Next Screen" button. If you are missing information or have not filled out an item correctly, a red error message will appear on the screen indicating what needs to be corrected in order to proceed.

How do I go back and change an answer?
Surveys are generally designed to allow you to go back to change an answer. While actively in a survey, use the "Previous Screen" button found on the bottom of the page to go back. After changing your response, use the "Next Screen" button to continue. Do not use the Back or Forward buttons on your browser. If there is no "Previous Screen" button, the survey will not allow you to change a previous response.

To change an answer with radio buttons, simply click on the new response. The selected radio button will be removed.
To change and answer with check boxes, first click on the checked box to remove the response. Then click on the appropriate box to select your new response.

Once a survey is complete, you cannot change answers to questions.

I started the survey, but need to stop and come back to finish later. Can I exit without losing my answers?
Our surveys are designed to allow you to re-enter where you left off. Just close your browser to end your current session. There is a timeout period one must wait to re-access the survey. We recommend waiting 15 minutes before attempting to re-enter the survey. To re-access the survey, follow the original access instructions you received in your survey invitation. The program has saved your answers and will take you to the point where you left off. Please note, however, that each survey is only available for a limited time. Once the required number of completes has been reached, you will no longer be able to complete the survey.

I am getting a "page not found or page cannot be displayed" error message. What do I do?
First, double check the typing of the URL (web address), as mistyped entries are the most common cause of access problems into our surveys. Second, verify you are typing the URL into the address line located at the top of the browser window and not a search engine field (like MSN, Yahoo, AOLSearch, Google, etc.) Search engines will not find this web address. Also, if you are connecting from behind a firewall at work, you may have trouble connecting to our site. We recommend contacting your internal IS support, accessing the survey from a home computer connection or contacting the MSI Support Desk by visiting our Contact Support page for more assistance.

I received an "unable to service request" message at the end. Did my survey get submitted?
The "unable to service request" message generally occurs at the completion of the survey when the user does not wish to close the browser window. Since the survey is complete, the survey site web address is no longer available, and thus the browser complains with an error message. Simply close your browser or access another web site. To verify your survey was completed, try accessing the survey again by following the original access instructions you received in your survey invitation. We recommend waiting 15 minutes before attempting to re-enter the survey for the software timeout period to expire. If your survey is complete, you will receive the following message: "You have already completed the survey. Thank you for participating.". If the survey is incomplete, the program has saved your answers and will take you to the point where you left off.

After entering my ID, I get a message: "ID not found or this survey is already open." What do I do?
This error message generally appears when a second instance of the survey has been launched, and the first instance has not ended. Even after the browser window with the survey has been closed, there is a timeout period one must wait to re-access the survey. We recommend closing your browser window and waiting 15 minutes before attempting to re-enter the survey. To re-access the survey, follow the original access instructions you received in your survey invitation. If after waiting 15 minutes you still receive the same error message, please contact the MSI Support Desk by visiting our Contact Support page for more assistance.

I'm getting a "timeout" error or the browser page is not loading. What do I do?
Generally, this is an indication of a high amount of Internet traffic, the speed of your connection, and/or a connection behind a firewall. Try connecting again at a different time of day, using a computer that has a faster connection or higher dialup speed, or using a computer that is not behind a firewall.

What if my question is not answered here or I'm still experiencing problems?
If you have other questions or require technical assistance, please contact the MSI Support Desk by visiting our Contact Support page. If necessary, our support staff will respond via email within one business day.

Frequently Asked Questions

Market Strategies - General Questions

All Surveys - General Questions

Web/Online Surveys - General Questions

Web/Online Surveys - Technical Questions